Mechanism for reducing wood to fiber.



No. 655,595. Patented Aug. 7, I900. J. ASKINS. MECHANISM FORREDUCINGWOOD TO FIBER.

(Application filed Jami. 16, .1900.)

2 Sheefs-Shaet (No Model.)

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No. 655,595. Patented Aug. 7, I900.

J. ASKINS. I MECHANISM FOR REDUCING WOOD T0 FIBER.

(Application filed Jan. 16, 1900.)

2 Sheeta8haat 2.

(No Model.)

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stopped by merely shifting the belt.

U ITE STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH ASKINS, OF LIMA, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE AMERICAN WOOD FIBERCOMPANY,

OF SAME PLACE.

MECHANISM FOR REDUCING wooo TO FIBER.

SPECIFICATION fending part of Letters Patent No. 655,595, dated August'7, 1900.

Application filed January 16, 1900.

T0 6! whom it may concern..-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH ASKINS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Lima, in the county of Allen and State of Ohio, haveinvented new and useful "Improvements in Mechanism for Reducing Wood toFiber, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to mechanism for reducing wood to fiber.. j

One purpose of my invention is to provide a machine of this type whichcan be easily and instantly regulated fro-produce coarse or fine fiber,as may be desired, as well as fiber of different degrees of finenessbetween the coarse and fine, each grade being of uniform characterthroughout. j

It is a further purpose of my invention to provide such a machine withautomatic means by which the two feed movements of the log or blockshall both increase in speed as the diameter of the block isjreduced,thereby causing the machine to produce fiber of a uniform size or degreeof fineness throughout.

It isalso my object to provide automatic means of simple characterwhereby the two feed movements of the wood may be regulated at anymoment without arresting the operation of the machine and whereby knotsand gnarled or hard portions of the block may be presented to the sawsor cutters in such manner as to meet the extraordinary demands upon themechanism. j

I aim also to provide themachine with simple and efficient deviceswhereby the rectilinear feed movement will be arrested as soon as it hasbrought the wooden block to a point beyond which it ought not to pass,the rotary feed and the cutters being permitted to run until theoperator stops them.

I also provide a machine in which the feed mechanism and cutters aredriven from the same counter-shaft and are both started or The inventionconsists of the several novel features'of construction and newcombinations of parts hereinafter fully explained and then particularlypointed out and defined in the claims.

For the purposes of the following description reference is had to theaccompanying drawings, in which' upon its outer end a worm-gear 13.

Serial No. 1,679. (No model.)

Figure l is a side elevation of a machine for reducing wood to fiberorganized in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan view of thesame. Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view.

The reference-numeral l in said drawings indicates the side portions ofthe supportingframe of the machine, which are of any suitable materialand construction, said members being connected by horizontal tie-bars 2,bolted at the ends to lugs 3 upon the vertical side'portions 1. Uponsaid portions is mounted a carriage 4:, consisting of an open framehaving sides which straddle the upper edges of the parts 1. Upon oneside of this carriage is a chuck 5 or other suitable device for holdingthe end of a log or block of wood, such as is indicated by the numeral6, and on the opposite side is a clamping-head 7, suitably supported ina bracket-bearing 8 and having a crank-arm 9 or other means by which itcan be operated to force the end of the log or block into engagementwith the chuck.

The latter is upon a shaft 10, journaled in a bracket 12 upon thecarriage and having This gear meshes with a worm 14: upon a shaft 15,arranged upon the side of the machine, one end being supported inbrackets 16, which project laterally from the side 1, while its otherend has bearing in a bracket arm 17,

'which is mounted upon the rear end of the carriage 4 and moves with thelatter. Upon the shaft15, between the two brackets 16, is a cone-pulley18, and in the same brackets is a second reversely-tapered cone-pulley19, with 'its face in close proximity to but not touching the face ofthe pulley 18. Revolution is communicated from one pulley to the otherby a friction band or strap 20, which encircles one of said pulleys andis of a length somewhat in excess of the greatest diameter of thelatter. The thickness of the belt issuch as to insure its compressionbetween the conical faces of the two pulleys to a degree that willimpart rotation without slipping The position of the band is controlledby a shifter 21, which slides on a guide-bar 22, mounted on the brackets16 and arranged in parallelism with the upper side of the lowerconepulley 18, with which the friction-band 20 is in operative contact.Revolution is communicated to these pulleys by a worm 23, meshing with aworm-gear 24 on the shaft of the upper cone-pulley 19. This worm is on ashaft 25, journaled in lugs '26, which project from the end of thebracket-frame that gives support to the cone-pulleys 18 and 19. On

the end of said shaft is a pulley 27, which is driven by a belt from acounter-shaft 2S, suitably arranged for the purpose.

The cutters or saws 29, which may be of any preferred form, are on ashaft 30, journaled in bearings 31 on the sides of the machine-frame. Apulley 32 is on the end of this shaft and is driven from the samecounter-shaft 28 that drives the cone-pulleys.

The carriage 4 is moved horizontally to feed the wood to the saws 29 bya screw 33, which extends centrally from a cross-bar 34 of thecarriage-frame through a bearing 35 in the rearward tie-bar of themachine-frame and then through the end of the carriage, beyond which itextends rearwardly, the projecting portion being without a screw-thread.A pulley 36,0f suitably-large diameter,is loose upon the projectingportion of the shaft and is op eratively connected with it by a ratchet37 and a pawl 38, the latterbeing mounted on a pin 39, which projectsfrom an annulus 40, surrounding the screw 33, but not engaging it. Thisannulus lies against or close to the rear end of the carriage, as shownin Fig. 2, and the pin 39 passes through the web of the pulley 36. Thepulley 36 is driven by a belt 41 from a small pulley 42, which is keyedor splined upon the shaft 15, so as to move with the carriage 4, saidpulley lying between the bracket-arm 17 on the rear end of the carriageand an arm 17 bolted to the bracket-arm. A spiral spring 43, coiled onthe screw-shaft between the annulus 40 and the pulley 36, normallypreserves the operative engagement 'of the pawl 38 with the ratchet 37.\Vhen the limit of the feed movement has been reached, the. pawl isdisengaged from the ratchet by pins 44, which project from the rearwardtiebar 2 of the machine-frame. As the end of the carriage closelyapproaches the tie-bar the pins 44 enter and pass through openings 45 inthe end of the carriage, (shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2,) and theannulus 40 encounters their ends, whereby the movement of the pin 39with the carriage 4 is arrested. As the ratchet 37 continues to movewith the screw it is drawn out of mesh with the pawl and the movement ofthe carriage ceases, the rotary motion of the block continuing until theoperator stops the cutters by shiftiu g the diverging belt to the loosepulley on the counter-shaft 28.

The band-shifter 21 is operated by a rod 46, which extends over andrests upon the end of the shaft 10, a collar 47 being provided to retainitin place. The said rod 46 has a lug or projection 46 dependingtherefrom, which is arranged in the path of the shaft 10 in such mannerthat as the carriage advances the said shaft will engage the lug orprojection and cause the rod 46, and with it the shifter 21 and band 20,to move forward between the cone-pulleys, thereby varying the speed ofthe shaft 15, and consequently the feed of the block of wood and therotation of the latter. \Vhen the block of wood is first placed in themachine and the latter set in motion, the rod 46 is drawn back to bringthe friction-band 20 to the small end of the cone-pulley 19. The feed ofthe carriage and the rotary movement of the block are both impartedthrough the large end of the cone-pulley 18. As the diameter of theblock lessens under the action of the saws the forward movement of thecarriage 4, through the shaft 10 and rod 46, as just described,gradually carries the frictionbaud in the same direction, causing it tocommunicate a forward movement to the carriage and a rotary movementtothe wooden block of constantly-increasing speed. In case the block ofwood being cut should be very hard or is full of knots the rod 46 can beraised so as to allow the lug or projection 46 to pass over theshaft 10,thus permitting the machine to remain on the slow feed, which requiresless power than whenoperating on the variable feed. It is a simplematter to proportion this increase properly by the relative diameters ofthe various gears. By this antomatic control of both feed movements thefiber produced will be .of uniform fineness. After a block or log hasbeen reduced to fiber the carriage 4 is drawn back by hand,-a crank 48being provided for that purpose on the en of the screw.

A marked advantage of the invention is that the mechanism can readily beadjusted to cut fiber of a coarse or a fine grade. If fine fiber isdesired, the shifter is so placed as to bring the friction-band to thesmallend of the upper cone-pulley l9 and leave it there during theoperation of the machine. If coarse fiber is desired, the band willbeplaced at the large end of the cone-pulley l9,and by placing it atdifferent points between the two mentioned fiber of various degrees offineness can be produced.

Another advantage is that if a tough, knotty, or gnarled piece of woodis putin the machine the shifter can always control the rate of feedaccording to the quality of the stuff operated upon by merely adjustingthe friction-band in one direction or the other.

Having thus described my invention, what porting means, a single shaftarranged beside the machine and having a pulleybelted to a pulley on thescrew and a worm meshing with the worm-wheel, and means for rotatingsaid single shaft at a variable speed, substantially as described.

2. Inamachine for reducing wood to fiber, the combination with a seriesof cutters, of a carriage movable toward said cutters, a revolublesupport on said carriage for the block or log of wood, a screw to movethe carriage, a single shaft geared to rotate said screw and also thesupport for the wood, reversely-arranged cone-pulleys one of which isfast on said shaft, a friction-band between said conepulleys, and meansfor automatically controlling the position of said friction-band by thefeed movement of the carriage, substantially as described.

3. In a machine for reducing wood to fiber, the combination with thecutters,of a carriage movable toward the cutters, a revoluble support onsaid carriage for the block or log of wood, a screw to move saidcarriage, a single shaft geared to the revoluble support and having asmall pulley belted to a larger pulley loose on the screw, a ratchetfast on the screw, a pawl connecting the pulley with the ratchet, anannulus loose on the screw and having a pin carrying the pawl, and pinsmounted on a rigid part of the machine-frame and adapted to engage theannulus as the carriage reaches the limit of its feed movement anddisengage the pawl from the ratchet, substantially as described.

4. In a machine for reducing wood to fiber, the combination with thecutters, of a carriage movable toward the cutters, revoluble means forsupporting a log or block of wood, a screw for advancing the carriage, awormgear to operate the revoluble support, a single shaft arrangedbeside the machine and having a pulley belted to a pulley on the screwand a worm meshing with the wormgear, reversely-arranged cone-pulleys tooperate said shaft, a friction-band between said cone-pulleys, andautomatic means for controlling the position of said band by themovement of the carriage, substantially as described.

5. In a machine for reducing Wood to fiber, the combination with thecutters, of a movable support for the wood, a single shaft operatingthrough suitable connections with the support for advancing the wood tothe cutters and simultaneously revolving the same, reverse cone-pulleysone of which is fast on said shaft, a friction-band between saidpulleys, and means for controlling the position of said band by themovement of the wood toward the cutters as its diameter lessens,

whereby the speed of the shaft will be proportionately increased,substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

JOSEPH ASKINS.

W'itnesses:

J. N. HUTCHISON, EMANUEL (bust.

